


The Beginners Guide to Being a Total Creep in Ten Seconds or Less

by dustyveins



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, also liam is basically not in this at all sorry, gratuitous use of snapchat, i'm so serious about that casual thing it's so casual, louis and harry are both kinda dumb and a little creepy maybe, niall is so smart he is a tiny lil genius, okay niall and harry kiss on the mouth but not in this story so, they aren't dating and they don't kiss on the mouth they hold hands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-30
Updated: 2016-01-30
Packaged: 2018-05-17 06:16:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5857327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dustyveins/pseuds/dustyveins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Harry is maybe kind of creepy, Louis is handsome, and Niall is not at all sensitive to Harry's dilemma.</p><p>Alternatively, goofy art majors need the help of secret genius Niall Horan in order to get their shit together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Beginners Guide to Being a Total Creep in Ten Seconds or Less

**Author's Note:**

> Okay I started this in September 2015!! And it's finally done!! I cannot believe it took me this long to write it it started as a dm that I sent to [Siân](temporaryhoran.tumblr.com), my lovely lovely beta, about an au where Harry and Louis are in uni and send their pals snapchats of each other not knowing their roommates are pals. It was supposed to be like 1k, maybe 2k tops. I am empty inside.
> 
> Anyway, thank you Siân for talking me through all of this, britpicking and proofreading and patiently answering all 3000 of my questions about British tea kettles (all for the background action of ONE SCENE) and also for informing me that uni is only three years long and my whole timeline was nonsense. She is absolutely amazing and I love her so much for putting up with me when she doesn't even ship Larry <3
> 
> Alright, so that's really it, I guess. If there are any typos PLEASE let me know, I don't think there should be anything left but when i copied over the document it was doing weird things so you never know, right?
> 
> Okay, enjoy!!

Harry Styles is not a creepy person.  Seriously!  He’s just a normal guy, who does totally normal things.  People watching is not weird, it’s a common past time, no matter what Niall says.  And listen, occasionally taking pictures of particularly interesting people he sees at the park isn’t really that weird either.  It’s not that different from taking pictures of cute animals or a pretty flower and honestly Niall can just back off.  Harry Styles is not creepy.

Okay, Harry might have to admit that he can be a bit creepy.

He’d never say it out loud, though, because Niall definitely would not let him live it down if he did.  But as Harry subtly tries to take a picture of the insultingly hot stranger sitting under the oak tree about 12 meters away, he has to accept that this is honestly a little creepy.  Or maybe more than a little creepy?  Okay, whatever, Harry can’t care about the creepiness level of his current activities because it keeps him from being as subtle as he can be.

The point is that he absolutely has to send Niall a snapchat of this boy, or Niall will never believe that Harry isn’t exaggerating his level of attractiveness, which he absolutely is not.

To Harry’s immense relief, hot-stranger doesn’t happen to glance up and catch him.  Harry, because he is possibly creepier than he will ever admit, saves the photo.  After doing that, he taps out a message to Niall saying “people watching VERY productive today” and sends it, not giving himself enough time to chicken out of the whole creepy affair.

When he glances back up, hot-stranger is tapping away at his phone.  Harry averts his gaze to avoid getting caught staring, stealing glances back at hot-stranger every few minutes because apparently he really just can’t help himself.   Hot-stranger is still scribbling away in his notebook when Harry gets up to walk back home.

He justifies it to himself by calling it a practice candid, he is very serious about his studies and he needs to make sure his photography skills stay up to par.  At least that’s what he tells Niall when he arrives back at their shared flat that evening.

 “You are full of shit, Harry Styles,” Niall declares, after laughing so hard Harry was almost concerned he’d wet himself, bracing himself against the counter he is leaning on with one hand and holding a beer bottle in the other.  Harry scowls in response.

“Am not,” he says, petulantly, and Niall just rolls his eyes and pats him on the shoulder, leaning towards where Harry stands in front of the kettle on the worktop.

“Course you are, Harry. It’s why I love you, you can’t lie worth a damn but it sure is cute when you try,” Niall tells him, raising his voice to be heard over the whir of the kettle.

Harry chooses not to even dignify that with a response, he doesn’t deserve this kind of disrespect.  And from his best friend, of all people!  Unbelievable.

“Whatever, Niall. You have to admit though, he was actually really hot,” Harry says, the kettle clicks to indicate that it’s done and the noise fades away.

“’Spose, so, mate.  Not the best picture you’ve ever taken, though,” Niall tells him as Harry lifts the kettle and pours the water into his cup and over his teabag.

“I could try again,” Harry says, trying at casual and probably missing.  The gears in his brain are already turning as he stirs milk into his mug, thinking of the possibility of seeing hot-stranger again.  It takes him a moment to realize Niall is laughing at him.

“Haz, you can’t go out of your way to find this guy and take pictures of him, that’s stalking.”

Harry scowls again and turns to face him, mug clasped between his hands.  He leans back against the counter and takes a sip of his tea.

“I’m not going to specifically seek him out.  Just… if I happen to see him again,” Harry amends.  “If I see him, I could try again.”  Niall rolls his eyes.

“You do whatever you want, mate, but just remember that I don’t have the money to be your surety when you get arrested,” Niall says, his eyes twinkling with amusement.  He takes a swig of his beer and Harry sticks his tongue out at him.

“I’m not going to get arrested, Niall, and I’m offended that you think I wouldn’t show up at court, I’m not an idiot,” Harry says defensively.

“Could have fooled me, mate,” Niall teases.  Now it’s Harry’s turn to roll his eyes.

“Whatever, I have homework to do,” Harry says, shooting Niall a smile and kissing his cheek as he leaves so he knows he’s not actually mad.  He can’t be mad at Niall, he’s just too… Niall.  Harry just can’t stay mad at that face.

“Try not to think about your boy too much, Haz, you won’t get any work done,” Niall calls down the hall.  Harry huffs out a laugh but doesn’t say anything back.

 

\--

 

The next time Harry encounters hot-stranger, he’s going for a walk through the park.  This time, he has one of his real cameras, the expensive digital camera his mom gave him for Christmas after his first semester in uni.  His current Colour Science and Application assignment involves a compilation of nature photos, something that evokes feeling without the use of human subjects or any unnatural structures.  Harry has to consider the emotional impact of colour contrasts and angles and lighting every time he lines up a shot, which Niall has repeatedly informed him is “mind numbingly boring, Haz,” but Niall and Harry have always had very different interests.

So he’s crouching down taking a picture of a bee perched atop a Tiger Lily, trying to get the angle just right and already thinking through how it will fit in with the photos he has so far, and when he stands back up, he sees hot-stranger under the same tree as the last time Harry saw him.

Hot-stranger has a pencil clasped in his teeth and he’s doing something on his phone and Harry… well, he’s already pretty creepy so he supposes this isn’t so bad, can’t be much worse than what he’s already done (it definitely is), so he walks a little ways down the path and crouches next to a rose bush.

Under the pretense of taking pictures of said rosebush, he takes a very professional and not at all creepy photograph of hot-stranger, who is back to leaning over his sketchbook, his phone now out of sight.  He might be going to hell.  He takes a few more photos, of the clouds and some birds and a lady bug on a blade of grass, and then he gets up and moves to a bench to look through his photos.

The picture of hot-stranger is so good that Harry is almost too proud of it to be embarrassed.  He slides his phone out of his pocket and opens up snapchat, taking a picture of the display screen and tapping out “this picture is much better” before sending it off to Niall.

Niall’s response comes almost immediately, a selfie of him making a horrified face with the caption “Harry I’m serious I can’t afford to be your surety” which makes Harry want to laugh but he doesn’t want to be _that guy_ so he just bites down on his lip and smiles to himself instead.

Harry takes a picture of the bench beside him and captions it “you won’t have to, stop worrying” and sends it off before locking his phone and slipping it back in his pocket.

Attention back on his camera now, he flips through the rest of his pictures, choosing to stare at the photo of hot-stranger more when he returns to his flat and doesn’t run the risk of getting caught staring at a photo of some random guy.  He wants to retain _some_ plausible deniability about his own creepiness, after all.

When he looks up again, hot-stranger is back to using his phone for something.  Harry is inexplicably curious about this guy.  He gets up and starts to walk home before he manages to embarrass himself.

Once he arrives back at his flat, he goes to his room and turns on his laptop.  He plugs the memory card from his camera into the laptop and loads up all his photos, putting the nature ones into the folder with the rest of his assignment photos.  Then, he opens up the picture of hot-stranger.

In the photo, hot-stranger is curled over his notebook and he’s biting his bottom lip.  Harry is very grateful for high definition cameras.  Hot-stranger’s hair is curling over his ear and the way the sun is gleaming off it, it looks almost blonde in spots.  The sleeves of his baseball tee are pushed up just past his elbows and Harry finds himself admiring his tattoos, absentmindedly tracing over his own as he does.  Hot-stranger is sitting criss cross apple sauce with his notebook balanced on his knees and Harry wishes he could see what hot-stranger was working on so determinedly.

He sighs and decides he should maybe stop thinking about hot-stranger so much and work on his assignment, so he gets to work, but he keeps thinking about hot-stranger.  He just can’t keep his mind from straying back to the way the sunshine gleamed off his hair or his artful scruff.  Harry wants to know where he got his compass tattoo done, because it’s gorgeous.

Harry might be just a little bit obsessed.

\--

Harry is used to only seeing hot-stranger when he’s at the park (which has happened a total of four times now and he may or may not have sent pictures to Niall every time.  Nobody can prove a thing, mostly because Niall isn’t dedicated enough to blackmailing him to take a screenshot.), which is why when Harry walks into the campus coffee shop and spots hot-stranger tucked into an armchair in the back corner, he’s a little bit thrown.  It’s just, there’s a hanging light directly above him and it’s kind of like a spotlight and Harry can’t really handle all of that?  He feels vaguely put off by this unexpected sighting (he maybe forgot that hot-stranger exists outside the park).  But Harry Styles is a master of composure, so he doesn’t let it show (much). 

He strolls right up to the counter without looking back at hot-stranger, so he counts that one as a win at least.

“Hey, Liam,” he chirps, giving a short wave to the man behind the counter.

“Hey there, hipster, nice hair clip,” Liam replies with a smirk.  Harry smiles and touches his fingers to the sparkly butterfly barrette holding his curls out of his face.  “It’s too early in the year for pumpkin spice, so what can I get you?”

“Hey! Pumpkin spice is legitimately delicious and I will not stand for you mocking me!” Harry says indignantly.

“Whatever you say, hipster,” Liam says, shaking his head and laughing.

Harry sighs and orders a medium earl grey tea.

Liam makes Harry his drink and Harry thanks him before going to sit down at a small table by the front door.  He sips on his drink and flips through the prints he just finished developing, working through the film based portion of his multi-media nature project.

Harry manages to keep himself together and not stare at hot-stranger at all, which he is very proud of himself for.  He really needs to finish this assignment today so he can start putting together his end of year portfolio.  He manages to sort out the pictures he wants to use, spreading them out across the table in front of him and tucking the extras back into the envelope he brought them in.  He puts the envelope carefully back in his bag and then gets to work deciding on an order for the ones he selected.

He’s about halfway through when he hears someone walking quickly past him and is hit by a really pleasant fruity smell, and when he looks up, hot-stranger is walking past him towards the door, looking at the photos Harry has spread out across the table.  Harry accidentally makes eye contact and hot-stranger smiles politely before pulling the coffee shop door open and walking out.  Harry shoots him a small smile and a nod, and looks down as the door slides shut.

He takes a sip of his now cool drink and determinedly does not blush.  He doesn’t even know this guy, he has no reason to be concerned about what this random stranger thought of his prints.  This is ridiculous!  He most definitely needs to get a grip.

He shakes his head a bit to clear it and takes another sip of his tea, which is now getting quite cold.  Harry sighs and looks at the order of the photos.  He switches the first and third photos and tilts his head to the side, squinting.  Deciding that he quite likes how the pictures look so far, he starts gathering them back up again, tucking them into an envelope he keeps in his bag and popping them carefully away.

Harry finishes the last of his tea and, grabbing both his cup and his bag, carries the cup to the dish counter.  He waves goodbye to Liam and wishes him a good day.  Liam smiles good-naturedly and calls back, “You too, hipster!”

Harry keeps his head down on the walk back to his flat, trying and mostly failing not to think about hot-stranger and his pretty smile.  Halfway through his walk, Harry huffs out a breath through his nose and slides his phone from his pocket.  He snaps a quick shot of the sidewalk without slowing his stride and types out “he saw me sorting my prints??” before sending the snapchat message to Niall.

A few minutes later, Niall sends back a picture of his left foot (why is he always taking pictures of his feet, Harry may never understand it) with the caption “who?”

Harry’s response is a blurry shot of a bush captioned “hot-stranger, obviously!” Harry sends the message off and slides his phone into his pocket, resigning himself to waiting until he returns home to finish this conversation.

Harry arrives at his   Harry admires his ability to focus, he tried to help Niall study for one of his history courses in their first year but by the end he kind of wanted to die due to confusion.  How he’s managing a joint honours in two stupidly complicated courses is beyond Harry.  He steps over Niall’s legs which are resting on the coffee table and Harry sighs as he sits down.

“You drink too much,” Harry tells him, sending him a sideways glance.

“One; that is categorically untrue.  Two; you obsess over strangers too much,” Niall replies with a smirk.  “So, tell me about this print sorting incident because I really never know what you’re talking about when you talk about your prints.”

“The prints aren’t really the point, Ni.”

“So what is the point?”

“He saw them!”

“So?”

“So! He looked at them, he walked past my table and he was looking at them and then he smiled at me, how am I supposed to cope with that?”  Harry asks, throwing his arms up in distress.

Niall starts laughing and Harry groans, throwing his head back against the back of the sofa.  He needs better friends.

\--

Harry’s got a chai tea latte clasped tightly in one hand, his camera hanging around his neck, and his other hand holding tightly onto Niall’s, so today is pretty good so far.  Harry is tired, and Niall is teasing him about his hair, but Harry doesn’t mind it so much.

“Your ears are coming in nicely, Bear,” Niall’s saying, reaching up to poke at one of Harry’s space buns with his pinky finger.

“Niall, I swear to god if you drop that coffee on my head I’m kicking you out of the flat,” Harry says, but he’s smiling and fighting back a laugh and Niall just scowls and kicks at his ankle playfully.

“I have an excellent grip, Harry, I won’t have you slandering my good name like this,” Niall says, withdrawing his hand and taking a sip of his drink.

“Yeah you do,” Harry says with a lascivious wink.  Niall shoves into him hard with his shoulder and Harry cackles.

“Shut up, idiot,” Niall says, but his words come out thick around his laughter.  “I’m just saying, your buns work much better now than they did when you did them the first time.”

“I know, isn’t it wonderful?” Harry says excitedly, shaking his head from side to side and causing his buns to wiggle a bit.

“You look like a proper bear, Haz. Bear-y Styles is out in full force right now.”

Harry smiles happily and sips his tea.  Harry loves the nickname “Bear-y Styles” and Niall knows it, the little bear hanging from Harry’s keyring is proof of that.  Harry is a total sucker for puns.

“Thank you, Niall.  And thank you for walking me to class, but unfortunately I have to leave now because we have arrived at the building,” Harry says, slowing his pace as they approach the art building.

“Ah yes, Bear-y has to go attend bear classes at bear school now,” Niall jokes.  Harry laughs and nudges him with his shoulder and stops fully.

“I’ll see you later, you weirdo.”  Harry leans down and kisses Niall on the temple, squeezing his hand before letting go and ruffling his blonde hair.

“Ah!” Niall exclaims. “You’re messing up my hair!”  Harry laughs as Niall starts trying to ruffle his hair back into place.

“Bye, Ni,” Harry says, walking away and waving a hand over his shoulder.

“Nice rhymes, you should be a poet,” Niall calls after him, and Harry laughs, because he knows that if either of them should write poetry, it’s Niall.  That guy could recite Shakespearean sonnets completely wasted and without prompting or assistance.  Harry knows this for a fact because he’s seen it, more than once.  One time, sex hazy and over-tired from a week straight of studying and too little sleep, Niall wrote an ode to Harry’s .  It was a magical experience.

\--

Later, on his way home from his final class of the day, Harry is on his phone doing some baseline research for his latest Graphic Design assignment when he slams head on into another person.

“Oh, sorry, sorry!” Harry says immediately, reaching out to steady the other person.

“No worries, mate, you alright?” the stranger replies, his eyebrows raising slightly when Harry makes eye contact with him.

“Yeah, sorry, just a bit distracted.  Wasn’t paying attention.  Sorry again.” Harry smiles sheepishly.

“It’s fine, no harm done.”

“Alright, have a good day,” Harry says, nodding at the man he bumped into and stepping out of his way.  The man gives him a small wave and carries on down the sidewalk.  Harry sighs again and puts his phone away for the rest of his walk home, embarrassed by his run in.

He thinks that guy looked vaguely familiar, he’s pretty sure he’s friends with Niall, but he doesn’t dwell on it too long, can’t help but cringe every time he imagines the point of impact.  It makes him feel terribly rude.

When he tells Niall later, he snorts and says, “What did he look like?”

“What?” Harry asks, thrown by the question.

“Well, you said you think I might know him,” Niall prompts, waving a hand out.

“Oh!  Okay, uh.  I don’t know, he had dark hair, and this smoulder-y eye thing going on and like…a _killer_ jawline, like you could probably cut yourself on that jaw,” Harry says, trailing off in what might be awe at the end, his mind kind of getting caught up on lines and angles and how well that guy would come across on camera.  Niall laughs again and pulls him out of his endless art kid cycle.

“Earth to Harry,” Niall says, waving his hand in front of Harry’s face.  Harry mumbles a sheepish apology and Niall continues.  “Like I was trying to say, it was probably Zayn.  You probably remember Zayn because I talked about him nonstop for like a month and a half.  And by the look on your face, I know what you’re thinking.  Yes, he models, don’t worry, that jaw is fully appreciated by a camera on a regular basis.”

“Nice,” Harry says, nodding.  He’d like to use Zayn for some of his figure shots, but that’s for another time.

“Yeah, okay, weirdo.  Go away and angst over this somewhere else, I have studying to do,” Niall says waving a book at Harry that looks like it probably weighs about a thousand pounds.  Harry tries not to make a horrified face at the sight of it.  Harry likes learning things, but the classes Niall takes are on an entirely different level.

Harry rolls his eyes and hauls himself up, cuffing Niall on the shoulder as he leaves.  Niall is so engulfed in his studying he doesn’t even seem to notice.

\--

So, the thing is that Harry is really not as creepy as this on a normal basis.  He’s an ordinary guy with extraordinary hair (or at least that’s what Taylor told him shortly before dumping an entire iced latte on his head.  Maybe he should have handled that one a little better).

So, Niall almost feels bad when he opens the latest snap from his best friend (a picture of his handsome stranger squinting at something in the distance, his pencil resting gently against his lips and a drawing pad sitting open in his lap.  The caption is just a series of exclamation points, three fire emojis, and a single crying emoji.) and Zayn just so happens to be looking over his shoulder.  Niall doesn’t realize this until Zayn makes a confused sound at the same time as Niall huffs out a laugh and fondly rolls his eyes.  He startles and glances up to find Zayn staring right at his screen, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.  Niall locks his phone and clears his throat.

He starts to say something about an inside joke and his best friend being a total weirdo, but Zayn cuts him off.  He looks up to look Niall in the eye again and tilts his head to the side.

“Why is someone sending you a picture of Louis from far off?” he asks.

“Who?” Niall asks, surprised by the question.  Zayn looks almost amused.

“Louis?  The guy in the photo?  How do you not know who he is if someone is sending you pictures of him?”  Zayn says, looking more confused by the second.

“You know this guy?”  Niall asks, waving his phone slightly.

“Yeah, he’s my roommate,” Zayn says like it’s obvious.

“I thought Liam was your roommate?” Niall asks.

“Yeah, Liam and Louis.  You’re kind of missing the point, though?” Zayn says.  Niall gapes at him for a second.  “Why are _you_ confused?” Zayn asks.  That’s when Niall begins to laugh.

“I know they say everyone is separated from everyone else by seven steps or whatever, but this one is a little ridiculous,” he says, laughing hard.  Zayn makes a small frustrated noise of confusion.

“What are you talking about?  How do you not know who you’re getting pictures of?” Zayn asks, a solid determination fueled mostly by frustration at being ignored lingering at the edges of his voice.

“Okay, not to freak you out, but my roommate may or may not be stalking your roommate,” Niall says, so bluntly that Zayn doesn’t even do the normal thing and freak out.  He just raises his eyebrows.  His phone buzzes and he reaches for it.

“Maybe stalking is a phenomenon spreading through our school because my roommate is basically stalking some guy, too,” he says, rolling his eyes when he sees a snapchat notification from Louis.  “Oh god,” he mutters to himself.  “See what I mean?”  Zayn says, shoving the phone at Niall.  Niall just manages to catch the picture (Harry, laying on his stomach with his camera placed against his eye) with the caption “zayn I am not strong enough for this” before the snap expires.

“Oh god,” Niall breathes out, and then he starts outright cackling.  Zayn keeps asking what’s so funny, and after a few minutes Niall manages to wheeze out, “that’s my fucking roommate,” between labored breaths.  He’s got one hand on his stomach and the other wiping at the tears forming in his eyes.

A thought seems to occur to Zayn right at that moment, his whole body perking up.  “Wait, you’re the boyfriend, aren’t you?”

“I’m not dating anyone,” Niall says with a confused look on his face.

“I know that, but Louis was angsting to me about some blonde guy dating ‘the cutest art major in the whole world,’” Zayn says, pitching his voice high in what Niall assumes is an impression of Louis.

“Um,” is all Niall can manage to say.

“Hold on, I can solve this,” Zayn says, snapping a picture of Niall before he can protest.  Niall leans over his shoulder to watch as he types out “is this mystery man’s bf” and hits send.

Not long after that, Louis sends back a blurry picture of the grass with the caption “ZAYN HOW” and Zayn rolls his eyes while Niall makes a delighted sound somewhere close to a laugh.  Zayn calls him on the phone.

\--

When Harry surreptitiously glances at hot-stranger through the corner of his eye again (translation: he glances out of the corner of his eye and then turns his head to full on stare when he sees that handsome stranger is preoccupied.  Subtlety is not his strong suit.), he seems to be arguing with someone on the phone, and Harry wonders what they’re talking about.  Hot-stranger has turned a pretty shade of pink.  All of a sudden he swings his head up and looks directly at Harry and Harry almost drops his camera in his haste to look like he wasn’t just staring at this handsome man he doesn’t even know (and that causes a second heart attack and honestly this much stress on his vital organs in such a short period of time cannot be good for him).

He stares studiously through the focus lens of his camera, focusing so hard on trying to look casual that he isn’t actually processing what he’s seeing.  His whole body is still and wound up and he knows that makes for bad photos, so he’s careful not to actually take any pictures since he’s working with film on this particular outing.

He hears the grass shuffling as someone approaches him, but he’s in deep denial of the possibility that it could be hot-stranger because he’s not willing to accept that he almost definitely got caught staring.  He is, however, trying to come up with a good excuse for it in his head (so far all he’s got is, “your conversation was quite loud, I heard it from all the way over here and was just looking up to see where the commotion was coming from,” which is improbable because of how far he is from where hot-stranger is sitting but if he’s called out he’ll just say he has impeccable hearing.)

“Excuse me?” he hears someone say, and he absolutely does not cringe.  He looks up slowly and keeps all of his cool when he sees hot-stranger standing over him (translation: he is turning red to the tips of his ears).

“Yes?” he says, voice steady.  He blinks twice and then realizes how weird he’s being by just…continuing to lay here, so he pushes himself to standing, leaving his camera to hang around his neck.

“Oh god you’re so tall,” hot-stranger whispers under his breath.  Harry, who was not in any way expecting him to say _that_ is at a loss for words.

“Um. Thanks?” he says in shock.  Hot-stranger visibly shakes his head at himself, seeming to cringe at the statement, perhaps not meaning to have said it out loud.  Harry doesn’t know what to do.

“Uh, so I’m Louis,” hot-stranger ( _Louis_ , Harry amends mentally) says, shoving his hand out towards Harry.

“Hi,” Harry says, drawing out the word and furrowing his brows as he reaches out to shake Louis’ hand.  “I’m Harry.”

“I know,” Louis says quickly and then immediately cringes again, dropping his hand to his side.  “Sorry, that was creepy.  Our roommates are friends, that’s how I know your name.”

“Oh, you know Niall?” Harry says, instantly brightening.

“Not exactly,” Louis says.

“What?” Harry asks as his phone buzzes in his pocket.  “Oh, sorry, do you mind if I take this?” he asks when he sees Niall’s name on the display.

“No, go ahead,” Louis says, waving a hand.

“Okay, sorry, hold on,” he says apologetically, answering the call he’s receiving from Niall.

“DON’T FUCK IT UP,” Niall shouts into the phone before Harry even says hello.  Harry cringes and pulls the phone from his ear and from the shocked look on Louis’ face, he also heard Niall’s little outburst.

“Ouch, Ni, settle down.  What are you talking about?” Harry asks, and is very grateful for Niall’s much more subdued tone when he responds.

“His name is Louis and he’s just as creepy as you are so I guess you’re just weirdly meant for each other or something,” Niall says.

“How do you…” Harry glances up at Louis again and finds him shifting from foot to foot.  “So did you tell him to come over here then?” he asks.

“He’s already over there?” Niall asks, and Harry hears someone shout something like “YES LOUIS THANK YOU” and he just keeps getting more confused.

“Yes?” Harry says, sounding unsure.

“Then why are you talking to _me_?” Niall asks.

“Because you called and I thought it might actually be important!” Harry says, throwing one arm up in exasperation.  Louis snorts out a laugh and Harry gives him a ‘can you believe this guy?’ look even though Louis can’t hear their conversation.

“All of my calls are important, Harry, I don’t know what you’re trying to imply here,” Niall says indignantly.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying, Niall, oh my god.”

“Okay I feel like we can have this argument later instead of right now, how does that sound?  But he knows about the pictures and would you believe it, he’s been doing the same thing!  You are a match made in creepy semi-stalker heaven,” Niall says cheerily, hanging up before Harry can protest.

Harry stares at his phone for a second after the call cuts off before he looks back at Louis, his mouth hanging open slightly.  Louis rocks back on his heels.

“So,” Louis says.

“So,” Harry replies, slowly coming back to the real world and functioning like a normal human being.

“Would you like to grab some coffee?” Louis asks, sounding incredibly tentative.  Harry smiles because it’s endearing.

“Sure, now?” he replies.

“Yeah, I know a barista at the coffee shop down that way, and he’s on shift today, so he might even give us free drinks,” Louis offers, as if he actually still needs to convince Harry.

“Okay, sounds good,” Harry says, nodding a lot and biting his lip to keep from smiling too wide and scaring off Louis with his enthusiasm.

“Alright, let’s go,” Louis says, practically buzzing.  Harry supposes he doesn’t have to worry so much about being too enthusiastic about things.

“Just one problem,” Harry says before they can start walking.  Louis’ face falls slightly.  “You left your bag under that tree,” he says, pointing to where Louis had been seated earlier.  Louis looks almost relieved and mutters a “Shit, hold on,” under his breath before jogging over to the tree.  He scoops all of his belongings up quickly and then jogs back over to Harry.  It’s all very impressive to Harry who looks quite ridiculous when he runs, his limbs too long to look natural.  Louis doesn’t have that problem, he looks rather graceful when he runs.

“Alright let’s go,” he says with a smile when he stops just in front of Harry.  He’s got a broad smile on his face and Harry can’t help but smile back just as wide.

“Alright,” he says, and Louis leads the way to the campus café, the walk quiet but not uncomfortably so.  Their arms keep brushing as they walk and they’re both just smiling and stealing glances at each other and Harry wants to take so many pictures of this boy, his cheekbones and the curve of his lips and just…all of it, it would look so good on film.  Harry’s not quite sure he’d capture the full spirit of it, the energy Louis is giving off, but he can try.

When they walk inside, Louis throws up the arm that isn’t holding his bag, and behind the counter Liam throws up both of his.  Harry raises his brows as they approach the counter.

“Louis! I didn’t know you knew Hipster!” Liam says, enthusiastic as ever.

“Oh, not really,” Louis says, looking between Harry and Liam with a confused expression.  “Harry and I just met today, nice lad.  Didn’t know you knew him?”

“I work at the campus café, Lou, I know everyone,” Liam replies like it’s obvious, his enthusiastic smile settling into something a little quieter,

Harry is slightly astounded by this whole conversation.  Louis turns his whole body to look at Harry.

“This whole thing is getting a little ridiculous.  Your friend, Niall, he was making jokes about three steps of separation or whatever but this is literally one step.  How have we never met before?” Louis asks, mildly exasperated.  Harry shrugs.

“Well, we’ve met now,” he offers.  Louis shakes his head.

“Yeah, that’s true.  Still crazy, though,” Louis says, turning back to Liam.  “You know what’s unfortunate, Li?  I’m super parched.  Like, _so_ thirsty.  If only that was a solvable problem, right?  Bummer.”  Louis sighs dramatically and Harry has to fight back a confused laugh.  Liam rolls his eyes.

“Lou, you’re such a leech, mate,” Liam says, but he sounds more fond then genuinely annoyed.  Louis just smiles devilishly.

“I have no idea what you mean,” Louis says.  Liam shakes his head.

“Unbelievable.  What would you like, Hipster?  It’s on me.  Louis gets nothing,” Liam says, turning his attention to Harry.  Harry laughs and Louis whines a little.

“An iced chai would be amazing, thank you, Liam,” Harry says, smiling widely.

“You got it, Hipster, I’ll be right back,” Liam says, stepping away from the counter to make the drink.  Louis turns back to Harry with a pout.

“He likes you more than me,” he says.  Harry laughs and shrugs.

“I have that effect on people,” he replies.  Louis doesn’t have time to protest because Liam returns with Harry’s drink before he has the chance.

“Alright, Lou, what kind of grossly sweet drink are you going to have today?” Liam asks, smirking.

“Hey, that’s rude, my drinks are always delicious,” he says defensively.

“I’m sure they are,” Liam says, nodding seriously.  “Now order, please.”

“Whatever, I know you’re making fun of me.  Can I have an iced passion tea with lemonade and raspberry?”

“Can do,” Liam replies, saluting Louis.  Louis rolls his eyes again as Liam walks away.  When he returns, Louis hitches his bag up further on his shoulder, grabs his drink, and grabs Harry’s arm with his free hand.

“Alright, Liam, Harry and I are going to go sit down now, it was lovely talking to you,” Louis says, already starting to walk towards an empty table in the corner of the café.

“Sure thing, Lou,” Liam says, already having moved onto wiping down counter tops behind the bar.

Once they’re seated, Harry asks, “so how do you know Liam?”

“Well, we met because he started dating my best friend, and now we all live together,” Louis explains.  Harry nods and takes a sip of his tea.  “How do you know him?”

“I come here a lot to work, I like the atmosphere and it’s close to the art department.  After a while, Liam and I became sort of friends.”

“Oh, cool.  Yeah, I come here a lot, too.  I’ve seen you in here before,” Louis says, aiming for casual and not quite reaching it.

“Yeah, I’ve seen you too.  I feel like this could really easily turn into one of those creepy ‘I’ve noticed you around’ conversations?  I swear I wasn’t stalking you,” Harry says, nervously playing with one of the loose curls around his face.

“And I swear I wasn’t stalking you, no matter what Zayn says.  Stalking would imply that I sought you out on purpose, but I just kept running into you.”

“Exactly! Like a bunch of weird coincidences.”

“Which makes it even more baffling that we never met before this, since we seem to both go to the same places regularly. I mean, we’re both art honours, how did we miss each other for three years?”

“Two,” Harry corrects.

“What?”

“Two years.  I’ve only been at uni for two years.”

“Oh.  Okay.  Two years then.  That’s a long time!”

“I don’t know, it’s like…fate or something, I guess,” Harry says.

“A universal conspiracy theory working against us,” Louis jokes with a laugh.

“Sounds totally real,” Harry replies.

“Well, now that we’ve cheated the universe out of keeping us apart, tell me about yourself.”

“That feels like a cheesey question someone would ask on a speed date.”

“Well… okay, I don’t know how to make it sound less cheesey so how about I just start saying things and you can respond with your own information.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Alright-y then.  Well, I’m joint honours in illustration and drama-“ Louis starts, but Harry cuts him off.

“Did you design your tattoos yourself?” Harry asks and Louis laughs slightly, startled.

“That was quick.  Yeah, most of them.  Zayn did a couple, too.”  Harry is nodding along and watching Louis with interest, his head tilted to the side.  Louis really enjoys the attention.

“That’s so cool, they look really good,” Harry says, sending Louis a broad and genuine smile.

“Thank you,” Louis replies, practically glowing.  “I have more than these,” he says, indicating his forearms.  “But you’ll only see the rest if you’re really lucky,” he finishes with a wink.  Harry lets out a startled laugh.  He is charmed by the playful delivery of the blatantly flirtatious comment.

“Well, good thing I have a history of being quite lucky, then,” he says with a smirk.  Louis smiles toothily at him, his eyes crinkling at the corners.

“You’re a funny guy, Harry,” Louis tells him, taking a sip of his drink.

“Thanks,” Harry replies.

Harry has a good feeling about this.  It feels a lot like a first date, and his favorite thing about first dates is the likelihood of more dates to come.  Louis’ smile seems to be saying exactly what Harry is thinking.

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't the end of this 'verse i unintentionally wrote a prequel that might turn into like...several prequels?? This 'verse has taken over my life I am but a small plant I cannot be held accountable for my obsession with these silly students. There is also PROBABLY going to be a sequel that isn't a real sequel but one of those things where it's the same story from a different point of view because while I was writing this Louis wouldn't shut his dilly darn mouth, so it's basically half written already.


End file.
